Merry Christmas!

Parish and I arrived home last night at 9:30 p.m. from our Christmas weekend up North in Grand Rapids. It was a jam-packed weekend, but it was great to see everyone. I got to try on my dress for Molly's wedding - it is absolutley beautiful! I can't wait for February!! It's all coming together and I am so happy for her!

Here are some pictures...

The Hawkins/Barten 2007 Christmas Snapshot...

We opened our presents on the Barten side on Sunday night. Our neice Haylee LOVES, I mean LOVES Dora - so, what did we get her? You guessed it - everything Dora. We got her this Dancing Dora game (with interactive DVD), Tons of books (mostly Dora) and a Dora backpack. Little did we know - that's exactly what she had asked Santa for (a Dora backpack)! We were tickled pink when she realized that we had gotten her the backpack. I had to capture her expression...

Next, we celebrated Christmas eve with my family. We have a tradition every year - we go to church at 5 p.m., come home - eat appetizers, drink wine and then take all night to open our presents. Everyone takes their turn - then, when we are finished, we clean up - organize our gifts and get ready for Christmas morning. This year - Parish's big gift was an HD DVD player - he also got a new watch, DVDs, Movie certificates, boot dryer plus much more. I got a new winter jacket (very much needed), an electric griddle, movie certificates, new clothes, decorative things for our house and money. A VERY good Christmas! We also got tons of gift cards for various places...which is the perfect size and color! :)

We spent Christmas day with Parish's family (Grandma, Grandpa, Rick, Brenda, Cindy Gooner, Chad, Nicki, Haylee, Brandon & Jamie, Aaron and Holly and Derrick) ...unfortunatley, I had the flu, so I only stayed a breif while before I went back to my parents house to rest. It's bad enough when you have the flu, but on Christmas - come on!